The Empire (story)
"The Empire" is a story written by ToaAtraks, which describes Skazark 10th squads' transformation into super soldiers and their first missions' ' Prologue The first thing you will notice are the ruins. Ruins to the south, to the north, to the west and to the east. You get the impression that the whole planet, or at least what is remaining of it is covered in ruins. But if you travel long enough, you will reach a wall. A very tall, black wall. Covered in spikes. Behind this wall lies a city. A very, very big city. Big black skyscrapers, that look like blades extending from the ground are the most noticeable buildings. Actually there are no other buildings. Everyone live in those skyscrapers. In the outskirts of the city you will see thousands of factories and barracks. The inhabitants of this city are the Skazark, tall saurial beings, covered entirely in black armor. Most of them are from the worker class, the lowest ranking class in their society. Patrolling in the streets are the even taller soldiers, whit white glowing lines on their armor. All the other inhabitants are even higher ranking commandos, generals, and other soldiers. Our story begins with Scatarus, a low ranking soldier. The usual places where people can find him is in a back alley, sleeping. Scatarus is happy. This is an unusual mood for a Skazark. He is happy, because nobody comes to bother him. Suddenly footsteps started to echo in the back alley. Scatarus started to groan and finally woke up. "What's going on?" A Skazark soldier, higher ranking than Scatarus, was standing in front of him. "Sleeping while on duty? You know that this is a punishable violation of General Arixis' rules, Scatarus." "Well Gerak, I wasn't sleeping, I was just thinking." "Yeah, thinking and snoring." "Gerak, please, don't tell captain Katrya about that. After all I didn't tell anybody when I caught you in a bar." "Yeah right… Let's go to the Headquarters and check if we have anything more to do." The Headquarters was, like you probably guessed, a tall black skyscraper. On it's fiftieth floor there was a big brown door. Behind it there was a big, square shaped office. Behind a big black desk, covered in documents, was sitting captain Katrya. She was a promising young officer, commander of the 10th squad of the city Guard. The fact that she was a female didn't make her less dangerous than the other squad commanders. "What do you want Scatarus?" "Err… Nothing, captain. I just came to check if I have any other tasks to perform before I can go back home." "Well you surprisingly have nothing else to do so you can go home." Scatarus walked towards his home, and he knew something strange will happen today. Chapter 1 Scatarus was walking towards his home, a dirty little flat on the first floor of a skyscraper. He was nearly home when he remembered he promised Gerak to help him move some furniture. Scatarus ran down the street and when he entered the skyscraper where Gerak was living, he ran quickly upstairs. He walked in front of Gerak's door when a plasma blast nearly melted his head. When Scatarus looked through the half destroyed door he saw Gerak holding his plasma rifle. Then he lowered the weapon. " What the hell was that, Gerak???" "Sorry. You know that I had to deal with ten assassins this month. I am really nervous." Scatarus looked around Gerak's flat. It was a little bigger than his own. All the furniture was transformed in a big barricade. The walls were covered in plasma scars. In one of the corners there was a big pile of weapons. Plasma daggers, pistols, and some Harakis. The Haraki is a weapon carried by elite assassins and commandos. It consists of a handle, a big, nearly unbreakable metal blade and a plasma blade. Scatarus always wanted a Haraki. "Hey if you don't need one of those Harakis, can I take one?" "Well probably…" As Scatarus took one Haraki and started swinging it around, Gerak heard someone walking down the corridor. "Scatarus, I hear someone coming!" "Oh great. May I check who it is? I mean we don't want to kill someone who is just passing" "Sure" Scatarus slowly walked towards the door and ignited the plasma blade of his Haraki. He jumped out of the room, swung his Haraki, nearly decapitating the unlucky Captain Katrya, who jumped on him and immobilized him. "Scatarus! What are you doing???" "Well… Gerak thought you were another assassin and I decided to check." "Get back in the apartment! I have something to tell you both. And give me that Haraki before you kill somebody." Gerak was very relieved to see Katrya, not an assassin. "Okay. I have some important news." "And what might they be, captain?" " The whole 10th squad will be sent to Dakir 5 to be reformed into a Special Operations Squad. This includes you two." "Am I going to be taught how to use a Haraki?" "Probably." "Woohooo!!" Scatarus started jumping around happily. "When do we leave, Captain? " Now." "Well let's go then!" As they walked out in the street, a green armored figure ran to a small building, after several minuets emerged on the roof, took out a communication device and, in a strange language said something, that should be translated like this: "They left for the shuttle. Make sure the bombs are ready." Chapter 2 The Skazark dropship was flying over the debris fields outside the city, and towards a big, spiky black building. Nobody inside the shuttle could even imagine what was going to happen. Scatarus wasn't feeling well, his stomach was making strange noises, but the others were fine. Several kilomiters behind them another ship, equiped with a cloacking device activated its thrusters and closed in behind the dropship. As soon as 10th squad's dropship landed on one of the facility's landing pads, several Skazark with strange white armor approached them. The one with the strange emblem on her armor came closer. "You have been chosen, out of 100 squads to participate in my experiment. You will become the best soldiers in our whole army. Now, please, follow me." She led the through the laboratories until they reached a small hall full of medical equipment and 12 pods. "Now, please enter the pods." The 12 Skazark netered the pods, which close immideatly after that. The scinetist entered the control chamber and started typing commands on the keyboards. Various robotic hands started to move. Several tubes linked with small openings on the pods and a strange, bluish chemical started to pour itself into the Skazark warriors inside the pods. After a few minutes, the robotic hands opened the pods and began to remove the armor from the Skazark. A SpecOps commander entered the control room. "Doc, are you sure that they will survive this?" The doctor just stood there, watching. "There's a 85% chance that they..." "This doesn't answer my question." "Well then, what if I tell you that they will die? There's nothing you can do. Only time will show us if they will survive" Gerak felt strange. His muscles were burning, his bones felt like someone broke them all, and he couldn't see a thing other than blurred siloethes. Around him, the other members of 10th squad were slowly awakening and exiting their pods. After all of them regained control of their bodies, they lined up, so the doctor can scan if ther's anything wrong with them. Poor private Frasd, he didn't survive... Gerak cleared shook his head, wishing he could forget his dead comrade. The doctor scanned each of them with some kind of device. "Well, you passed phase one. Now, follow me to the armory." The armory was a giant hangar full of prototype weapons, powere armor, even a half constructed fighter. "What you see here is the future of our army." The SpecOps commander thought it imperative to tell them all about those weapons. After a few minutes, they reached something that resmbled a boxing ring. Next to it there were 11 big, black, spiky sets of power armor. "Now, please, let the techinicians assemble the armor on you." Several techinicans began to asseble the armor plates on the warriors. After ten minutes, the armor was finally assebled. The warriors were amased. They could jump up to five meters, run at 40 kilomiters per hour and they could lift a Destrak tank. Now it was time for them to pick up their weapons and test them. Scatarus chose a heavy rotating blaster. Katrya chose two pistols and a plasma knife. Gerak picked up a sniper. "Now, it's time to test your shields. Please, stand still." Two regular soldiers loaded their energy rifles and opened fire. The bolts hit the soldiers from 10th squad, but they were simply absorbed by the shields. "Good. Now, it's time to go to the..." The doctor couldn't finish, because of a loud explosion. The whole hangar shook, and dust began falling from the ceiling. The SpecOps commander activated his communicator. "What is happening out there!?" There was just static sound. Then a weak voice said: "We're...under attack. By the V-vidorians...send backup." Then there was another explosion and the voice dissapeared. The SpecOps commander smashed the coms device in the wall. "I should've known they will attempt to destroy Dusk Base..." Katrya put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry commander, we'll go out there and wipe them out." Gerak loaded his sniper rifle. "Count on us" The squad approached the hangar doors. They were selaed after someone hit the alarm. Katrya just pointed at them and Fray, the explosives specialist put a charge on them. Just before he moved away from the doors an explosion flung parts of the door at him and he smashed at a nearby wall. Gerak checked his life stats - he was dead. But there was no time to mourn the fallen. The rest of the squad ran to the baricade. There were several low ranking soldiers who were hiding behind it. One of them climbed on a turret and opened fire. "Private, what's the situation?" The private shook his head. "They landed with a cloacked ship and deployed troopers with camo generators and two tanks. This was more than enough to break through our defences. It's only me and these two who are left." Katrya thought for a moment. " I have a plan we'll split up into two groups. Gerak, Krae, Trays, Jik and you three will stay here and provide us fire support. I, Scatarus and the others will try to blow up the Tritium reservoirs right under their ship." Katrya loaded her pistols and ran towards the reservoirs. The others from her group followed her. Everything was going just fine when somebody activated the communication channel. "We have a problem. Our shilds aren't working. We have to-" A Vidorian fired a rocket at Katrya's group. She and Scatarus moved out of it's way but the other four didn't. Their siloethes froze for a second, then they dissapeared in the explosion. Scatarus opened fire with his rotating blaster and seven Vidorian fell. Gerak put the last clip in his sniper. He was in a bad situation. Cloacked Vidorian have killed everyone else with energy blades. Good thing he blasted them with a grenade, but he was alone now. A figure in black armor with glowing ornage lines on it exited the hangar. "How is the battle going?" Gerak was relieved to see the SpecOps commander. "Not very well. It's only we, you, Scatarus and Katrya versus a horde of Vidorians." The commander thought or a moment. "You see this Destrak tank over there? Cover me until I manage to enter it." Gerak aimed and took one Vidorian Swordmaster out. "Yes sir." The commander ran as fast as he could. Something hit him, but he continued to run. Finally, he reached the tank and entered it. He pushed the activation button and the tank began to hover one meter above the ground. He acivated the thrusters and the tank move fastly towards Gerak. The commander opened the hatch and streched his hand. "Come on, climb in before they blast your head off!" This was Katrya's worst day ever. She dodged a energy blast and emptied her pistols in one Swordmaster. "Come on Scatarus, blast the reservoirs! I can't hold them off forever!" "Working on it!" Scatarus took a small grenade out of his belt and set the timer for 20 seconds. Then he acivated it. "We have to run! Now!" The two ran as fas as they could towards the hangar. The timer showed 10 seconds. "We won't make it!" Just as they were five meters from the baricade, the grenade exploded. The Vidorians, their ship and the whole landing pad were engulfed in green flames. Scatarus felt the heat through his armor, and just when he thought he will die, someone grabbed him and Katrya and they found themselves in the tank. Chapter 3 It was elswhere. Another place. If it can be called a place. There were no directions in this place, no up or down, left or right. The only thing that was there were the clouds. Black clouds. Red lightnings flashed occasionally. And in the center of everything there was a dark figure. It was clad in black armor covered in spikes. The being moved. It was not exactly a move actually, but it had a great effect. A black wave of energy bursted from the being's armor and spreaded in all directions. This...will get their attention. Several figures, clad in a similar same kind of armor, but their armor being so white it shined appeared next to the being. What is it...do you need to be reminded of your situation, Soulbreaker? Or you just want to waste our time? The black armored figure moved just a centimeter. Another wave of black energy was emitted from his armor and it hit the white armored beings before they managed to move. Your biggest mistake was to lock me up...here. You know how powerful the Chaos energy here is, and yet you made that mistake. All I needed...was time. And you came just when I didn't need more time. And for your mistake you will suffer. The being moved. In a flash, two blades of pure black energy appeared from holes in his armor and he charged the Guardians. With a swift move one of them was decapitated. Before the others managed to defend themselves, the Soulbreaker had killed most of them. The leader drew his sword and barely managed to block the Soulbreaker's blades. ''You're only delaying what is inevitable. '' The Guardian moved back, with his sword raised. The Soulbreaker just twitched his fingers and a blast of black energy hit the Guardian in the chest. Cracks began spreading on his white armor. Blood was leaking out of them. The Soulbreaker moved his hand again. The Guardian's armor exploded. ''I...warned you. '' Rak'Ven watched as the Guardian's soul faded away then raised the key. Freedom, at last. As he pressed a button on the device, a white portal opened and he stepped in it. Now to finish the war... Chapter 4 One month later... hours, 06.07 [the "Black Dawn" super cruiser, orbiting Herips VII Someone knocked on Scatarus' cabin's door. "Come in" he answered. The door opened and his squadmates, Katrya and Gerak walked in. Another trooper, bearing the rank of Division Commander was with them. "We need to discuss the assault, and you three, as the Squad commanders need to be informed of the plan." For a moment, he stared through the cabin's window. Then he turned back at them. "You, along with the secondary strike force will be sent down there in the dropships. Once you land, I need you and your squads to provide support to the main strike force. We need to take this planet. It is expected that the Vidorians will have artillery, mines and autoturrets positioned around the Command Citadel. Also, it is expected that a key target, a Vidorian general, Velen Ir'Kra will be there. Due to their... stupid traditions, he will lead their army. So eliminate him first. Then, move onto the rest of their army. Good luck." Scatarus put his helmet on and walked out of the cabin. As he entered the troop bay he was stunned. Hundreds of "Shadow" dropships were lined up. Thausands of troopers, not the regular ones, but SpecOps like him were being loaded on the dropsips, along with tanks and other weaponry. But it was the soldiers that stunned him. He thought that tthe program was cancelled. And now, thausands like him were here. The war was going to end soon. A loud alarm brought him back to reality. Red lamps started flashing. The ship AI's voice was echoing through the speakers "All troopers get on the dropships. Launching in 2 minutes. All Pilots to their fighters. We're engaiging the enemy fleet." Gerak put his hand on Scatarus' shoulder " We have to go." The two climbed in their dropship's bay. There were about 30 more troopers in there, along with a "Spirit" tank and lots of other equipment. The speakers in the troop area came to life with loud screeching. It was the captain this time. "All dropships launch now, or you'll be caught in the crossfire. You have no fighter escort, so fly carefully." As he finished the dropship hovered above the deck for a minute, then launched itself forward. Scatarus looked at one of the displays. The Imperial fleet was already attacking the enemy ships. Plasma torpedoes, laser beams, energy projectors and fighters were filling the screen. He could hear what the others from the squad were saying. They were all wondering if they would survive. He looked at the screen again. Hundreds of other dropships were flying towards the planet. Vidorian Scimitar fighters were attacking the dropships. A nerby dropship was struck by a missile and exploded in a fireball. "We're entering the atmosphere." said the pilot. The Viodrian fighters turned back. They weren't suited for atmospheric combat. But they didn't need to attack the dropships. Land based artillery has already taken out many dropships. "This is Alpha 134, requesting energy projector strike on those AA cannons! They're going to take us all out!" Scatarus heard some pilot say. The next moment a beam of white enrgy hit the surface kilometres below them and the enemy fire stopped. The pilot turned at the troopers "Get ready! Approaching the LZ. It's gonna be hot!" Scatarus looked around. He could sense the other troopers' fear. He grabbed his rifle and readied himself. The dropship landed. The troop bay door slammed into the ground. Light filled the dimly lit bay. Weapons firing, explosionjs and screams filled the air. The Spirit tank exited first, providing the troopers with fire support. Scatarus opened a Commlink to his squad. "Go, go, go! Secure the LZ! Heavy weapons, provide fire support!" A sharp crystal projectile hit the ground next to him. "And someone take out that sniper!" He rushed to the barricade. A Vidorian Strike Trooper aimed at him and fired his rifle. The projectiles hit Scatarus' shields and their power began to drain. Scatarus ignited his enrgy blade and shoved it in the Vidorian's stomach. He fell, dead. Scatarus ducked behind the barricade. A Spirit tank got hit by an enemy plasma artillery and exploded, showering Scatarus with metal fragments. "They're pulling out!" said some trooper over the comm channel. Scatarus looked at the Citadel and saw that most of the Vidorians were retreating towards it. There were a few Vidorian squads still fighting Empire forces across the city, but the bigger part of their army was now gathering to protetc the Citadel. A red icon flashed on Scatarus' HUD. He activated it and a message containing orders from the general appeared. Scatarus opened a commlink to all the squad leaders. "We have orders from the general. We have to advance towards the citadel and destroy it at all costs." He paused and looked at his TacMap. "I'm marking several spots, we need snipers there. Also, we need tanks here." He marked what appeared to be a big street leadin to the Citadel. "And here" he marked a large square. "We need to secure the square, so we can use it as an LZ." As soon as all the squads recieved the orders, they began taking postions. Scatarus could see the snipers climbing in the half-destroyed buildings and turning their active camoflague on, and the tanks moving in to secure the landing zone. A dropship passed over his head and landed on the square. "Third Squad have arrived, Commander." said Scatarus' AI. "Good. Send them the battle plan." The dropship took off. Scatarus only noticed the flash before the beam hit. A beam of pure white energy hit the dropship, which seemed to freeze inside the beam before it was vaporised. A huge explosion followed. "We lost the Spirits!" someone screamed over the comm channel. "Enemy forces are moving towards us! We won't be able to hold them off without the tanks! Third Squad are dead!" Scatarus turned his radar on. A huge group marked as enemies was apporaching what was the square. "Vidorian Executors! Where did they come from?!" said some soldier, then the commlink died. He opened a secure channel to his squad. "Gerak, Katrya! Where are you? I need you immediately here!" He opened the TacMap and marked the square, then ordered all forces in the area to move in and attack the Vidorians. He was furious. Soldiers died because he let himself get fooled by the Vidorians. Chapter 5 Scatarus turned around, and removed his helmet. "What did just hit us?" asked Gerak, and looked at the direction of the recently vaporized LZ. "I don't know. It was too powerful to be an energy mortar. But we need to find it and destroy it. I already ordered all forces in the area to attack the Citadel." Scatars looked at his wrist display. "Here." He marked a small maintance entrance. "We will infiltrate the Citadel from here. Once we're inside, we have to find the Vidorian admiral. We also have to shut down that weapon, or more troops will die." Scatarus put his helmet on and laoded his rifle. "Let's go." ---- The tall, lizard-like being slowly opened its eyes. He looked around. The giant hall, from where he commanded all Vidorian forces in this star system was engulfed in darkness. Not the normal kind of darkness, which was formed by the abscence of light.This darkness seemed to move. It drifted in the air, like some kind of mist. The sound of the battle raging outside could be heared, thought it seemed very distant. Then the Vidorian realised he was unable to move. While he couldn't see anything, something ''was binding him to his throne. Then the shadows moved. A tall figure, clad in black armor slowly walked out of the shadow of one of the pillars that were supporting the hall's roof. Something in the figure seemed familiar, thought the unfortunate Vidorian admiral wasn't sure what exactly. Then he relaised he was looking at a fully armored Skazark. Only that the one that stood in front him was way taller than the ones fighting outside. "I see you're finally awake, admiral" The being said. His voice was deep and distorted by the helmet's speakers. "Too bad you missed half the battle. It was quite interesting, especially when I tested your suppresor against the Skazark. Quite a formidable weapon." The being walked over to a computer console, moved a dead Vidorian aside and began typing commands in. "Too bad I'm going to have to blow this whole place up. Vidorian architecture always amazed me. Anyways, as far as I know, a Skazark SpecOps squad sent here to kill you just infiltrated the building, using data I sent them." The admiral tried to move. His body, however refused to. "What...who are you? And how did you enter this facility? Nevermind. Release me, before my guards gun you down!" The tall figure moved away from the console. "There, self-destruc sequence initiated. Oh, and about your guards...they're dead. All of them. Along with most personell in the base. They tried so hard to stop me. Well trained troops you had here. Too bad their lives were wasted." The being looked at his wrist display. "Ah, here comes the SpecOps squad I mentioned. Such a shame they'll never fulfill their objective..." As he finished, the being took a pistol from one of the dead guards, aimed and shot the admiral in the head. The being looked at the giant blast door at the other end of the hall. ''They'll be here any moment now. Too bad the whole Citadel will blow up... The shadows in the hall moved, swirled like serpents and then formed a portal. The being walked in it, and just as Scatarus and his squad opened the door, he simply dissapeared. Chapter 6 Scatarus and the rest of the squad walked through the final set of giant doors that led to the Citadel's controll room, weapons ready. "What the hell happened here?" Gerak said, as he looked around. The whole controll room was full of the bodies of dead Vidorian officers and troopers. The command consoles were destroyed, and several of the support coloumns were blown up. Gerak walked to the Vidorian commander, who was tied to his throne. "He's dead. Someone executed him." "Who could've done this? As far as I know, we're the only squad sent to infiltrate the CItadel." Scatarus walked over to the nearest command console. "This one's still operational. I'll see if I can find the weapon controls. Then we get out of here." Scatarus took a device from his belt and attached it to a port on the console. The Imperial hacking software entered the system and soon the weapon control menu was opened. "Huh. The weapon systems is already offline. No useful data here." A red warning message flashe don the screen. |Self destruct sequence initiated. Remaining time: 1 minute and 45 seconds| "Damn! This place will blow up in less than two minutes. Wea have to get the hell out of here!" Scatarus yelled, as he detached the hacking device. He locked his rifle on the back of his armor and ran towards the exit. A small timer appeared on his HUD, showing the remaining time. Gerak and Katrya were already several meters ahead of him. 0:35... He turned around a corner and looked at his TacMap. Down the hallway,another corner, through the blast doors, and they were out. They were gonna make it in time. 0:25... 65 meters to the corner. Katrya was already out. Gerak was some 10 meters away from the exit. 0:15... Scatarus turned around the corner. The exit was close. He would make it. 0:10... Scatarus jumped over a crate. He passed through the exit, and continued running down , towards the LZ. 0:00... A series of huge explosions tore the Citadel apart. The blast wave from the explosion hit Scatarus, and he fell on the ground. As he tried to stand up, he heared the sound of gunfire, then he felt extreme pain. Something hit his right shoulder. A big, green, crystal-like projectile, like those Vidorian sniper rifles fired, was sticking out of his shoulder. As he tried to pull it out, his vision blackned, then he fell on the ground. Chapter 7 To be written... Characters *Scatarus *Gerak *Katrya Category:User:ToaAtraks Category:Stories